U.S.-Bashing Book by Sony’s Chief Costs Him Credibility

Akio Morita, the renowned founder and chairman of Sony Corp., has made an error in judgment. He has co-authored a book, with an anti-American Japanese politician, titled “The Japan That Can Say ‘No’ .” The book advises Japan to say no to U.S. demands on trade and investment and also on defense.

“The time has come for Japan to tell the U.S. that we do not need American protection. Japan will protect itself with its own power and wisdom,” writes the politician, Shintaro Ishihara, a ranking member of Japan’s ruling party who finished third in the recent balloting for prime minister. “Technology can be the basis for Japan’s defense,” continues Ishihara, crediting the thought to Minoru Genda, one of the commanders of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor.

“If, for example, Japan sold (semiconductor) chips to the Soviet Union and stopped selling them to the U.S.,” writes Ishihara, “this would upset the entire military balance.”

That’s not true, of course, but it’s characteristic of this strange book. Ishihara frequently gets carried away with dislike for America--”such a shifty country”--and Americans, whom he accuses of racial prejudice in dropping the atomic bomb on Japan.

However, Ishihara is not the problem. Every country has jingoistic politicians, and Ishihara’s writings would not have received notice outside Japan--especially as the book has not been formally translated--if Morita had not been involved.

But the fact that Japan’s best known businessman contributed every other chapter has given the book wide notice. A partial translation has been distributed to members of Congress; copies circulate in U.S. business circles and in the Hollywood entertainment community, where Sony has become a prominent force through its purchase of CBS Records and pending acquisition of Columbia Pictures.

Goes Off Deep End

The question is what does Morita have to do with Ishihara? When asked, Sony’s American subsidiary gives out its chairman’s answers at an Oct. 2 press conference in Tokyo. “I now regret my association with this project,” said Morita, “because it has caused so much confusion. I don’t feel U.S. readers understand that my opinions are separate from Ishihara’s. My ‘essays’ express my opinions and his ‘essays’ express his opinions.”

Morita’s own chapters mostly criticize American industry for laxity in manufacturing and shortsightedness in investment--themes he has sounded in the past. However, in this book, Morita goes further, telling his Japanese readers, “America has a great many defects of its own, to which we must continuously direct its attention.”

Morita cites the often misguided layoff policies of U.S. corporations, but then goes off the deep end in his comparison. “America has been condemning nations such as South Africa and Afghanistan on human rights issues,” Morita writes, “however, I must ask Americans if they are applying these same standards to their own workers.”

South Africa, Mr. Morita? (Sony says its products are distributed in South Africa, although it doesn’t sell directly to that country) Afghanistan, Mr. Morita? The truth, it seems clear, is that the Sony chairman let crankiness displace judgment--and his company failed to stop him.

If a major U.S. executive, such as John F. Akers of IBM or Roger B. Smith of General Motors, were to co-author a book with a jingoistic extremist like Ishihara, it’s a good bet their companies would soon be announcing their early retirement and denying any connection with the book. But Morita and his family own 8% of Sony--a stake worth $1.6 billion--so he continues as its chairman.

Frequent Complaints

The poignant irony is that Morita has been regarded as the most international of Japanese businessmen, the man who moved his family to the United States in 1962, the better to study the American market. Morita and Sony have done well in America and there is little doubt he has high regard for its principles, although his recent criticisms have grown harsher as suspicion has seemed to grow between the two peoples.

In Japanese business circles these days, there are frequent complaints that America singles out Japanese investment for criticism that it does not direct at other foreign investment.

America, meanwhile, looks at its own deficits and the vastness of Japan’s surplus capital--$71 billion at last count--and fears the consequences of its own overconsumption of imported goods and lack of savings. In that light, Morita and Ishihara’s book could do some good--as a warning that America invites only disdain unless it gets its economic house in order.

But the book is likely to do more harm than good, giving support to Japan’s critics in Congress and leading to counterproductive policies. Which is unfortunate because America and Japan, with a lot more to cooperate on than to quarrel about, need to build trust and reduce suspicion. Sadly, Akio Morita, who was always seen as part of the solution in that regard, now appears to be part of the problem.